Helensburgh man, 47, caught with 1,650 child abuse images

A HELENSBURGH man was found to have more than 1,650 indecent images of children on three computers in his home.

Brent David Day – who had the user name Happy – was caught by police after officers raided his Kildonan Drive house following an intelligence led- operation last year.

The 47-year-old told police he had downloaded the images, some of which showed girls as young as six-months-old, to satisfy his curiosity and insisted others had been obtained by mistake.

At Dumbarton Sheriff Court last week he was warned he could face a significant jail sentence after admitting to possessing a quantity of indecent photographs of children between April 7, 2009 and August 16, 2012.

Sarah Healing, fiscal depute, said Day’s house had been raided by police as part of an intelligence-led operation aimed at identifying individuals who were involved in the online distribution of indecent images of children.

Day’s Helensburgh house was then searched and three items were found within the property which were of interest to police.

An Acer laptop belonging to Day’s wife was found to have 22 indecent images on it of girls aged between 12 and 14-years-old.

Another black laptop, which Day said was his, was seized from a storage box in the living room.

It was analysed and found to have a total of 1501 still images of children aged between six months and 15-years-old.

The images ranged from levels one to five – with level five images classified as the worst.

A total of 50 moving images were also discovered which ranged from levels one to four. A third computer, a Compaq notebook, was also taken from the living room and found to contain a further 85 indecent images.

In all police found 1658 images on all three computers showing girls aged between six months old and 15 years.

Day was then interviewed and said his wife, who had also been initially detained by cops, had nothing to do with any of the material found on the computers.

He also told officers he had downloaded the files out of curiosity and by accident.

At the end of the interview he was cautioned and charged and made no reply.

Sheriff James Spy said Day had plead guilty to a very serious charge which could result in a significant custodial sentence being imposed.

Day, whose address was given as HM Naval Base Clyde, will now appear in court again on August 14 following the preparation of reports.